Stephen King’s Best And Worst Movies

The Shawshank Redemption is arguably the greatest Stephen King film in existence, but was swiftly followed by the very worst. Stephen King movies have been coming at a steady clip since the success of Carrie in 1976. It’s also interesting to note that the best adaptations tend not to be horror.

Movies like Stand by Me (based on King’s novella “The Body”) or Misery are dramas with thriller elements. Translating Stephen King’s horror books to the big screen has also bested some great directors. Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is a masterwork, but only loosely based on the novel (and King himself hated it).

John Carpenter’s Christine or David Cronenberg’s The Dead Zone are good movies, but they’re not especially scary. One filmmaker who really gets King’s voice is Frank Darabont, with three of his four theatrical credits – including The Green Mile and The Mist – being fantastic.

Darabont also helmed 1994’s The Shawshank Redemption, a prison drama about an innocent man who spends years trying to break out of the titular prison. It’s sometimes dark and disturbing, but it’s ultimately an uplifting drama about human perseverance under the worst possible circumstances.

The Shawshank Redemption Was Soon Followed By The Worst Stephen King Movie, The Mangler

The Shawshank Redemption wasn’t recognized as a masterpiece when it hit theaters in September 1994, so it took time to catch on. Thanks to VHS and TV airings in the years that followed, it soon came to be seen as the best Stephen King adaptation. Unfortunately, it was soon followed by The Mangler, which might be the worst.

The story follows a hardboiled detective (played by Ted Levine), investigating a death at a laundry, which turns out to be caused by a laundry press that eats people. As a darkly comic short story like King’s original tale, it’s a fun premise. On the flipside, that concept is a hard sell for a movie audience.

There might be a Sam Raimi/Eli Roth version of The Mangler that could lean into the absurdity and make it fun, but Tobe Hooper’s Mangler just doesn’t work. It veers uncertainly between dark comedy (which is rarely funny), over-the-top gore and an almost Tim Burton visual sensibility.

While the film has its admirers and a small cult, The Mangler is a real slog. It’s not funny, scary or gory enough to sustain its runtime, and only Robert Englund, as the evil owner of the laundry, seems dialed into the material.

The Mangler Should Be So Much Better Than It Is

The frustrating thing about The Mangler is the sense it could have been a good time. Hooper is a horror icon thanks to 1974’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and his 1979 Salem’s Lot miniseries is also great. He’s got a solid cast at his disposal too, including Englund and Levine.

If The Mangler had leaned into the pitch black comedy of Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, it would have had the right tone. However, Hooper’s hard-pressed (sorry) to make the ludicrous premise work. There was zero chance of making The Mangler scary, but had it been able to compensate for that with humor, the final product would be so much better.

Instead, The Mangler tries a few different tones but never fully commits to any. It’s also hampered by some poor acting by the supporting cast and dialogue that even a seasoned pro like Levine fails to sell.

The Mangler Is Proof Not Every Stephen King Story Need An Adaptation

Again, The Mangler short story is good fun, but it’s a slim read. The film embellished it quite a bit to make it feature-length, but it just begs the question: why? The answer is that it’s based on a Stephen King story, which carries cache with audiences, but The Mangler proves his work shouldn’t trigger an automatic film version.

The same thing happened with other feature-length takes on King’s short stories, such as Night Shift or Children of the Corn. These tales were effective little chillers on the page, but were never intended to sustain a film version. It’s not only impressive that Children of the Corn did just that, but that it spawned an entire franchise.

The Mangler would be more successful as part of a Creepshow-style anthology, but as a movie, it’s not fit for purpose. The producers wanted to cash in on using the author’s name, but that does little to help the final product.

The Mangler Still Spawned A Franchise

The Mangler grossed a measly $1.8 million in 1995 (via Box Office Mojo), and its terrible reviews put off even devoted King fans. Still, the author’s name will always carry a certain value, which explains the existence of 2002’s The Mangler 2 and the final outing, The Mangler Reborn.

The former boasts genre legend Lance Henriksen and reimagined the titular entity as a computer virus, while Reborn was another human-eating machine. Needless to say, both sequels are terrible. The second film is a painfully cheap, scare-free effort while the third film is a scuzzy bore.

On that front, at least the original Mangler can claim to be the best of the trilogy. The film obviously never stood a chance of living up to The Shawshank Redemption, but it would have been nice if it had at least been a good time.

Source: Box Office Mojo